282 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



had proved a failure and a source of danger in the past ; 

 it would likely be the same in the future, were it permitted 

 to exist. 



In a scheme of partition the interests of the United States 

 clearly entitled her to the retention of Tutuila and its valu- 

 able harbor of Pago- Pago, and perhaps to no more ; but the 

 interests of Germany and Great Britain in the Pacific were 

 far more complex ; neither power could well retire from Apia. 

 In the first attempts to reach a conclusion in the matter of 

 partition of the islands, it became very apparent that the 

 group was, after all, too small for a satisfactory division, and 

 the question soon narrowed itself down to whether Great 

 Britain or Germany should retire from Samoa, in considera- 

 tion of benefits to be granted, and leave the other in sole 

 possession. The extent of land owned in Samoa by the 

 Germans greatly exceeded the holdings of other nationalities. 

 Their investments were larger, their trade greater. They 

 had been the first to exploit the islands commercially, and 

 had always taken a more direct and active interest in the 

 government and politics of the Samoans. Their claim to the 

 group was probably stronger than that of England. 



An understanding was reached in November, and it was 

 quite fitting thafr Great Britain agreed to withdraw entirely 

 from the islands. By Anglo-German treaty, signed Novem- 

 ber 14 (1899), Germany retained full possession of all the 

 islands of the Samoan group west of longitude 171 W. 

 This included the entire group, with the exception of Tutuila 

 and some near-by smaller islands of little or no importance. 

 As a compensation for her abandonment of all Samoan claims, 

 Great Britain accepted from Germany the latter's rights in 

 the Tongan Islands, a group lying several hundred miles south 

 of Samoa ; England also received the German islands of 

 Choiseul and San Isobel, of the Solomon group. Germany 

 also made certain other concessions to England in Africa. 



On December 2 (1899), a treaty was accordingly signed 

 in Washington by the representatives of the three powers. 

 As this document marks the final episode of American 

 complicity in Samoan affairs, it is quoted in full. 



